By Gloria Ogbonna
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday dismissed the massive nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic as a foreign conspiracy, claiming the unrest was not a popular revolt but an “Israeli plot” carried out through “Daesh-style terrorist operations.”
In an interview with Fox News anchor Brett Baier, Araghchi insisted that the Iranian regime was not suppressing protesters but instead fighting organized terrorist cells that had allegedly infiltrated demonstrations across the country.
According to Araghchi, these groups engaged in extreme violence, including shooting at police officers, burning security personnel alive, carrying out beheadings, and deliberately targeting civilians.
He repeatedly emphasized that “Daesh,” another name for the Islamic State terror group, was the model for these operations, portraying the unrest as a coordinated campaign of terrorism rather than spontaneous public outrage.
“For three days, we were not fighting protesters. We were fighting terrorists,” Araghchi claimed, asserting that the regime had successfully defeated these elements after days of intense clashes.
He went further by alleging that Israel’s supposed objective was to dramatically raise the death toll inside Iran in order to provoke international intervention, particularly from the United States.
Araghchi argued that Israel sought to force the Iranian government into killing large numbers of people, thereby placing pressure on President Donald Trump to follow through on previous statements suggesting the United States might intervene if Iranian protesters were massacred.
“They wanted to increase the death toll,” Araghchi said. “Why? Because President Trump had previously stated that if there were killings, he would intervene. Their goal was to draw the United States into the conflict.”
Describing the alleged operation as “deliberate,” Araghchi claimed that Israel aimed to maximize chaos by targeting both ordinary citizens and police officers, all in an effort to destabilize Iran and undermine the regime.
As he has done repeatedly during previous waves of unrest, Araghchi insisted that the uprising had been crushed and that the government now had “full control of the security situation.” Any renewed unrest, he warned, would only be the result of foreign meddling designed to reignite violence.
“Let’s hope we don’t see a high level of tension, which could be disastrous for everyone,” he added, framing continued protests as a threat manufactured from abroad rather than a reflection of domestic anger.
The Iranian foreign minister’s narrative was echoed by senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that plays a central role in both Iran’s internal repression and its overseas operations.
On Wednesday, IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour repeated claims that Israel and the United States were using “Daesh-style mercenaries” to destabilize the country.
“The powerful and popular IRGC is at the height of readiness to provide a decisive response to miscalculation by the enemy and their Daesh-style domestic mercenaries,” Pakpour declared.
Invoking religious language, he vowed that Iran, under the leadership of the Supreme Leader and with what he described as national unity, would defeat what he called schemes orchestrated from Washington and Tel Aviv against a “Strong Iran.”
Pakpour directly accused President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of orchestrating the violence, blaming them personally for the deaths of Iranian youth.
He hurled insults at both leaders, labeling Netanyahu a “child-killer” and Trump a “criminal gambler” and calling the former U.S. president the “Nimrod of the time,” a reference to the biblical figure often associated with rebellion and tyranny.
Other senior Iranian officials followed the same script. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Karami, commander of the IRGC’s ground forces, said Iran was facing a “comprehensive and multifaceted war” against its enemies, with street protests representing just one front in a broader conflict.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, bluntly summarized the regime’s position by naming “1–Trump” and “2–Netanyahu” as “the main killers of the people of Iran.”
These claims stand in sharp contrast to reports from international media outlets and human rights organizations, which say the overwhelming majority of casualties have been Iranian civilians killed by state security forces.
Observers estimate the death toll ranges from approximately 2,400 to more than 20,000 people, though precise figures remain difficult to verify due to the regime’s sweeping internet shutdowns and communications blackouts.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the nationwide protests appeared to be “increasingly smothered” after a week of violent repression. Security forces reportedly confiscated Starlink satellite devices in an effort to prevent unauthorized internet access and limit the flow of information to the outside world.
In Tehran, witnesses told the AP that signs of unrest had faded in recent days. Streets once marked by bonfires and debris were reportedly quiet, and the sound of gunfire that had echoed through the city on previous nights had largely disappeared.
The report also noted that China’s foreign ministry said Araghchi informed his Chinese counterpart that the situation in Iran was now stable, reinforcing the regime’s insistence that order had been restored even as questions about the true human cost of the crackdown continue to mount.
Source Breitbart
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